Next Up at City Council, 4/18-19/07 – or maybe not

Well, this is unusual. The Agenda for next week’s Portland City Council meetings doesn’t seem to have been posted on PortlandOnLine. Even the link which “goes to the current agenda for the next City Council meeting”, now handily posted on the front page of PortlandOnLine, goes to the April 11-12 agenda. No matter how many times I click on Refresh. I guess we’ll have to wait until Monday. I sure hope there isn’t anything important on the Agenda that citizens might need the weekend to research or prepare comments on.

Insert your own “If Measure 26-91 passes….” inference here.

So even more detective work than usual is required to find out the [expletive deleted] issues to be voted on this week. Upcoming Agenda Items lists the following:

April 18, 2007
9:30 AM Green Street Policy and Report
10:15 AM Sustainable Development Commission Report
11:00 AM BIP #12 Streamlining Maintenance Functions

April 19, 2007
2:00 PM 936 NW Hoyt LU 06-184561
2:30 PM Byer M37 Claim*

OK, that gives us something to chew on, although in the past some Upcoming Items have been postponed when the Agenda is finalized. The Green Street project was one such delay, several weeks ago. Is there any link to the report on PortlandOnLine? Of course not, at least not that I can find by clicking on the “New Policy” link on the front page, checking Commissioner Sam’s site (takes three clicks to load most times), and searching on those two and the Office of Transportation page. Good luck with finding out about that, if you’re interested.

I’m not finding the Report on the Sustainable Development Commission‘s page, either.

“BIP #12” – I wonder how many citizens have any clue what that might reference. “BIP” is “Bureau Improvement Project”, a process (series of processes) Mayor Potter initiated when taking office, seeking to improve coordination within and between City bureaus. Number 12 is apparently dealing with streamlining maintenance functions. There is doubtless a tie-in with Charter reform to be made with this one, but this post is depressing me enough already. No easy-to-find link for this item, either.

Hooray for land use issues! They always cheer me up. They have rules that are supposed to be clear, and citizens have a statutory right to participate in them. Plus the Staff Report (pdf) pops right up in a search. It says:

In 2003, the applicants requested approval of a Central City Master Plan to reallocate the 14 housing units that were required for the block located between NW 9th and 10th Avenues and NW Hoyt and Irving Streets (current address is 925 NW Hoyt) onto the adjacent site to the south, at 936 NW Hoyt. This “receiving” property was and still is developed with a surface parking lot. The combination of the minimum density for the RX designation that was placed on the “receiving” site and the 14 units that were transferred to the site requires 34 units for the 936 NW Hoyt property. These reviews were approved under LU 03-00301 CCMS, CP ZC. In the interim, development plans changed for the original “transfer” site and a mixed-use development, with 178 dwelling units was constructed on that property.

Now the applicants are asking for approval of an amendment to the Central City Master Plan, in order to restore the original status of the site at 936 NW Hoyt, removing the housing requirements and the RX (Central Residential) designation and restoring the previous Comprehensive Plan Map designation of Central Employment and the EX Zoning Map designation.”

OK, so I didn’t list “simple and easy to understand” as reasons for loving land use issues. Let me know if you want me to translate those paragraphs.

The final item listed on Upcoming Agendas is a Measure 37 Claim. I like to give those their own separate posts, as I believe people understand the big policy questions better when considering specific real-life examples. I’ll write it up and post about it tomorrow. And hope it’s still on the Agenda when that is published on line on Monday.